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To whom it may concern: I've hunted Wyoming multiple times over the last 12 years. I've got good memories. The proposed tag increase will be the end of hunting Wyoming for me should it pass! I've got maximum points for elk, mule deer & antelope. Should this pass I'll exhaust my points in 2013 & say farewell to Wyoming. I think the NR tags are two high as it is right now. Most of the land I hunt is Federal property that every US citizen pays taxes on! I think it is a violation of my constituional right for me to pay a NR price for a tag anyway. The price increase is the last straw for me. If Teddy Roosevelt was hear he would be ashamed you guys! You need to do some serious soul-searching!

This is why I only hunt in New Mexico! Out of state hunting fees and costs are ridiculous! Stick with your own state and do a lot of scouting and you will take some good trophies. If out of state hunting wasn't so ridiculously expensive, I'd do it to.

I think your on the right track here... I've been applying for several states for a few years but the list of applications get's fewer and fewer every year. With this tag increase in Wyoming I may drop them too or at least burn the points I have and never return. I already dropped my sheep and moose points in Wyoming after the last increase.

I'm a Colorado resident so it's a little easier for me. I shot a 170's bighorn sheep last year, a 79" antelope with my bow this year, and just got back from a successful moose hunt where I was blessed with a 50" bull. So I'm starting to ask myself, why spend ridiculous amounts of money to hunt other states, when, if I put in the time researching and scouting right here in my own backyard (so to speak) I can be rewarded with great animals every year? I'm definitely not opposed to filling the freezer with a cow or doe either! Someone mentioned how many points some of the top units take in Colorado. This is definitely true but there's good hunting in other units too. My 79" antelope for example was taken with a second choice archery tag.

I feel for those of you who don't live in a western state but love to hunt the west. Not sure the answer for you? Start embracing turkey and whitetail I guess? No good answer...

Most of you guys are pretty lucky in the fact you live in states where you can hunt them fine critters every year. Here in ND our antelope season is closed, our elk, moose and bighorn tags are once in a lifetime and impossible to draw, and our mule deer herd is suffering big time (and whitetail). Since bitten with the "western bug", sitting in a tree stand waiting for a good whitetail to walk by doesn't seem as exciting as it once was. And any land worth a hoot for that is very tough to come by these days (which is one of the reasons why you guys in Western states are seeing an increase in hunters on your fine public land). As more and more fine hunting land and habitat gets chewed up for farming all across the US, and the pay to play mentality spreads, and the greed, more and more people will look into the western public land hunts IMO.

It sucks all around, and if I want to play, I'm gonna have to pay unfortunately.

And when I say pay, I'm referring to tags and their increase in price, not lining the pockets of landowners with access fees, or guides....I'll stick to public land. If the 62" antelope or the 150" mule deer is the best I can do there, that's just fine with me.

well NONE of you can complain until you come to Wisconsin to hunt. It is the essence of a rich mans game. Every person with their own little piece of land......food plots everywhere. Public land beeming with people. I do well enough of of sheer hard work and determination on public lands...........but its a tough haul. And you have to seriously downgrade your idewa of "trophy" unless you own land. For all that ails the western hunter, its 100% worse for us easterners. Unless your a big money guy, hunting is tough. So to me, the West is almost heaven like. High pressured areas in Wyoming are like desolate wasteland for me. Its nothing to see 20-30 guys on a 400 acre public chunk during gun season. Thats not even considered "high pressure" for WI.

This is disappointing......the bad part is, you will see the fringe western states (dakotas,nebraska) get even more pressure. Eventually people will just pay the fees.......but whats next? 750 for a deer tag? 1200 for elk??

Geez I hope Wyoming never ends up like wisconsin. Personally I don't care if I had to pay the same as nonresidents it's well worth it for the experience here. I think Wyoming is one of the cheaper states to hunt in right now anyway.

i am not joking either. about 4 years back, I hunted a public land of about 450 acres. I showed up 1.5 years before shooting hrs, and there was probably 20 trucks parked there. On a 4k acre state park, of which about 3000 acres are hunteable, there was 40-50 trucks opening morning. In some places where there are designated parking areas, they are so full you cant even park.

We have far less public land, and have had 600K gun hunters...........Wyoming has usually what? 80,000?

so yes..........to me, Wyoming is Heaven on earth. Unless you own land in Wisconsin, its kind crazy. Thats why I bowhunt. And I bowhunt the deepest nastiest thickest areas as far from any road as I can. Its the only way I ever seen any deer at all. Then I know guys who own land, and there are deer everywhere. And if its isnt a 150" buck, its small.

Yep............Wisconsin is the epitamy of Rich Mans Hunting. Wyoming is where my heart is. Hunt harder and smarter and you can have success!!!!!

55% of Wyomingites hunt or fish, not sure how those numbers break out hunters versus fishers. That'a bout 250,000 people total.

Total tags sold matter not total tags applied for. So they can charge whatever they want because there are enough people to pay it. Wyoming is not just a big deal in the USA scheme of hunting, Wyoming has been at the forfront of International big game hunting since the 1960s.

Even the Shah of Iran and a whole host of other big time hunters from the 1950's and 1960's have hunted in Wyoming a lot.

They are one of the biggest names in hunting Globally. And they know they can charge what they want.

I hope I am always able to afford to hunt in my home state, I wish I was a resident now as it looks like we are probably moving back there. I'll have to wait a year out, and do some applications for ewe bighorn, doe and cow elk tags for that first year. Might do the bison tag application as a non-resident. As $2500 for a bull is cheaper than $5000 for a bull in South Dakota.

I keep coming back to this thread, and can't help but look at the issue through a different lense. While, yes, these states should be able to run far more effeciently than they do, that will never change. One of the issues with Government agencies is that if they don't spent all of this years budget, and ask for more, it'll get cut, cause someone else is ready in line to take the 'surplus'

The real issue at hand is that the Western game animals are a finite resource. I'm a pretty big supply and demand guy, so it's hard for me to agrue against a tag increase when there was over 40,000 people building points or applying for elk tags in Wyoming. 40,000 people applying for a very limited number of tags. And thats just the non residents!

I don't want to pay for a $1,300 elk tag, just like nobody else does, but it seems with the demand being that high, the state is almost doing themselves a disservice to not jack the tag prices up. As a non resident, I'm just glad the tag price isn't $2k (yet...)